Lengthen a belt??

[Outfitr]

Does anyone know of a good way to make a belt longer? Ok so I recently finished a customers belt, full floral carved, lined, hand stitched. Few weeks later customer says belt too small even with another hole can you make it longer? I explicitly explained over and over how to measure for the belt including a drawing. They gave me a number and I made the belt. At first they said I made it too small but a remeasure insured that I made it exactly as I was suppose to according to the number I got. I panicked a little at first thinking I may have screwed up but I always make a note listing the customer and all the info I need and pin it above my work bench until the project is complete. I probably check and recheck the belt length a dozen times so I was sure it was correct. Turns out they measured old belt wrong so I'm really not obligated but feel bad and want to help. It was an expensive belt. And it was their request to somehow make it a little longer. I don't know....looks like another belt in my near future.

[Dwight]

I would cut off the section of the belt where the buckle attaches.

I would then take a piece of probably 7 oz . . . make it long enough to attach on the belt where the end was cut . . .  overlap it front and back (skive the belt to facilitate this) . . . stamp the new piece to augment the stamping of the belt . . . dye & finish the "new" piece . . . 

And I would not charge him for the extra. 

I do things like this for my customers . . . knowing we all make mistakes.  

It would become a custom belt such as no one around would have . . . 

May God bless,

Dwight

[Klara]

Probably too simple, but how much is "a little"? Would a bigger/longer buckle be sufficient? 

[chuck123wapati]

8 hours ago, Dwight said:

 

It would become a custom belt such as no one around would have . . . 

 

except for my daughter lol. That's exactly how i did it and  i can say it works out real nice.

[Outfitr]

13 hours ago, Dwight said:

I would cut off the section of the belt where the buckle attaches.

I would then take a piece of probably 7 oz . . . make it long enough to attach on the belt where the end was cut . . .  overlap it front and back (skive the belt to facilitate this) . . . stamp the new piece to augment the stamping of the belt . . . dye & finish the "new" piece . . . 

And I would not charge him for the extra. 

I do things like this for my customers . . . knowing we all make mistakes.  

It would become a custom belt such as no one around would have . . . 

May God bless,

Dwight

Where would you cut the belt exactly..where the buckle slot starts? The liner on the belt extends all the way to the buckle end and of course is stitched too. So then the 7 oz. piece you suggested I assume you would fold over, stitch together, and cut a new buckle slot to make a new end and sandwich the other end  to top and bottom of old belt?? I end my tooling before that end of the belt so just some dye and finish would work. Dang I hate to cut that belt. But then what good is it if it doesn't fit....it's got personalized initials on it of course.

[tsunkasapa]

How much are we talking about? You can gain some by nailing it to a board, putting a nail in each hole, then pulling from the other end. Stohlman says to wet it, but I don't think you want to go there

[Samalan]

1 hour ago, Outfitr said:

Where would you cut the belt exactly..where the buckle slot starts? The liner on the belt extends all the way to the buckle end and of course is stitched too. So then the 7 oz. piece you suggested I assume you would fold over, stitch together, and cut a new buckle slot to make a new end and sandwich the other end  to top and bottom of old belt?? I end my tooling before that end of the belt so just some dye and finish would work. Dang I hate to cut that belt. But then what good is it if it doesn't fit....it's got personalized initials on it of course.

I would cut that right in the center of the two screws skive about 1/2" to 3/4" on the two cut ends of the inside of the belt then make the addon piece lets say it's an inch then make that addon 2" for a 1/2" skive or 2.5" for a 3/4 skive then I think I would make the keeper that 1" wide put it back together  with nothing less than barge cement then stitch top and bottom no one will ever see it and if you do the barge right it will be very strong you can even put in an extra two screws if you like hope this helps Good luck

[Outfitr]

OK thanks everyone for your suggestions. I did think about stretching it but not sure about that. Right now I'm not sure exactly how much length it needs...I'll have to get back with customer and nail that down. I suspect it's not much because he was wearing it for a while. I think I'll get the belt back and start the surgical procedure soon. I'll keep you posted.

[JLSleather]

If you only need an inch or two, DONT cut that belt.  Turn it into a "ranger" style belt by adding "billets".  I won't  bore you to no end ... you can let us know if this is something that interests you and THEN we'll go into that.  If you can cut the billets from the same hide, that's GOLD (but not required).

 

[RockyAussie]

Just a way I would do it is to make up an extension piece. I do a lot of my belts with a separate extension in order to make them quick and easy to cut back in size if needed but also they can be made longer with a longer extension piece if needed. A good thing here is that the tongue of the belt will cover over your connection whichever way you go. In your case above I would cut it at the start of the crew punch hole and skive and add in that extra inch or so your chasing. Follow this up by adding an extension over the top so you end up with something along the lines as shown in the following pictures. You can stitch the top part of the extension to the main part of the belt or not , your choice.